METH: HENDERSON AMONG HARDEST HIT

Local, State and Federal Law Enforcement Officials Met Thursday In
Henderson County to Discuss the Damaging Effects of Methamphetamine
Abuse on Communities As Part of National Methamphetamine Awareness Day.

U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina Gretchen
Shappert joined Drug Enforcement Administration Assistant Special
Agent in Charge John Emerson, Henderson County Sheriff-elect Rick
Davis and Caldwell County Sheriff Gary Clark on Thursday morning for
a news conference held at the Henderson County Courthouse as part of
the U.S. Justice Department's awareness initiative.

Henderson County is one of the hardest-hit areas in Western North
Carolina by the effects of organizations trafficking in
methamphetamine smuggled into the area from Mexico, Shappert said.

Shappert announced that with the stabilization of seizures of local
meth labs in the state in late 2005, the focus of law enforcement and
federal prosecutors has shifted to the threat posed by Mexican
traffickers who dominate the meth market in North Carolina.

In 2005, the DEA and the State Bureau of Investigation, working with
local law enforcement, focused on meth lab conspiracy cases that
targeted repeat offenders and those who distributed meth, Shappert said.

Federal indictments filed in June and July 2005 charged 28 defendants
as the result of a yearlong investigation -- code-named "Operation
Ice-Melt" -- which focused on a meth conspiracy that began in January
2001 and continued until June of this year and operated in Burke,
Caldwell , Henderson and Lincoln counties, Shappert said.

In October 2005, five people were indicted in U.S. District Court for
the Western District of N.C. and alleged to be responsible for at
least 500 grams of meth distributed in Buncombe and Henderson
counties. On Nov. 2, Reymundo Rodriguez, 24, of Hendersonville, one
of the members of this small group, was sentenced to more than 22
years in federal prison as a result of his conviction on the charges,
Shappert said.

"It is important for the citizens of Western North Carolina and
Henderson County to know about the seriousness of the drug crime in
their community," Shappert said. "It is important for our people to
be informed of the very hard work of law enforcement coalitions
working within their communities, too."